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MGR/Good as a Standalone, Poor for MIDI « Yamaha DD55 »
Published on 04/06/03 at 15:00Purchased from ZZounds.com for $250 + shipping March 2003. I chose this unit because it had the most drum pads available short of a full electronic stage kit, which I didn't have room or money for.
The DD55 works well as a stand-alone unit. The drum pad sensitivity is fairly expressive, perhaps a bit too much so. The pads are very sensitive to not only velocity, but also how centered your hits are. The small onboard speakers sound rather disappointing, but the unit sounds much better played through good headphones or an external amp and big speakers.
The MIDI controller functionality is nearly nonfunctional: the pads are supposed to be independently programmable for MIDI note output, and to have a memory that saves the one allowed custom drum kit. Neither of these functions appears to work. The DD55's onboard interface is very poor, the onboard MIDI note programming info does not correspond to its output, the method for searching MIDI motes is poor and time-consuming, programming one pad alters the programming of other programmed pads for some reason, and the memory does not consistently maintain your settings. The DD55's MIDI wouldn't send or receive at all on a fully-functioning SBLive soundcard, even though both the SBLive and the DD55 worked with other MIDI instruments and modules, some of which worked with both the SBLive and the DD55. I was not able to find the source of this problem, but the DD55 does transmit and receive on an Audiophile 2496 card.
The unit is reasonable for light use, but likely wouldn't withstand heavy hammering. Another complaint would be that the smaller "cymbal" pads should all be along the top, with the larger pads along the bottom, more like real drum sets. People totally new to drumming won't notice these shortcomings so much, but those used to real stage kits will quickly be disappointed, because many types of common hits can't be done because of the arrangement of the pads. The arrangement of pads also seems a bit cramped; it would benefit from a couple more inches between all.
The unit does well as a standalone unit if used with headphones or an external amp+speakers, but the MIDI functinality is a near-disaster. No instrument profiles I could find allowed the DD55 to function as normal as a MIDI controller on my computer. The only way I can use it as a controller is to simply record whatever MIDI data it puts out when played, and then edit the MIDI files in PC software after recording to put the signals into the right notes. It's disappointing because there really isn't anything else currently competing with the DD55 now, you can either spend a lot less and get only four pads, or spend a lot more for a stage-level instrument.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com
The DD55 works well as a stand-alone unit. The drum pad sensitivity is fairly expressive, perhaps a bit too much so. The pads are very sensitive to not only velocity, but also how centered your hits are. The small onboard speakers sound rather disappointing, but the unit sounds much better played through good headphones or an external amp and big speakers.
The MIDI controller functionality is nearly nonfunctional: the pads are supposed to be independently programmable for MIDI note output, and to have a memory that saves the one allowed custom drum kit. Neither of these functions appears to work. The DD55's onboard interface is very poor, the onboard MIDI note programming info does not correspond to its output, the method for searching MIDI motes is poor and time-consuming, programming one pad alters the programming of other programmed pads for some reason, and the memory does not consistently maintain your settings. The DD55's MIDI wouldn't send or receive at all on a fully-functioning SBLive soundcard, even though both the SBLive and the DD55 worked with other MIDI instruments and modules, some of which worked with both the SBLive and the DD55. I was not able to find the source of this problem, but the DD55 does transmit and receive on an Audiophile 2496 card.
The unit is reasonable for light use, but likely wouldn't withstand heavy hammering. Another complaint would be that the smaller "cymbal" pads should all be along the top, with the larger pads along the bottom, more like real drum sets. People totally new to drumming won't notice these shortcomings so much, but those used to real stage kits will quickly be disappointed, because many types of common hits can't be done because of the arrangement of the pads. The arrangement of pads also seems a bit cramped; it would benefit from a couple more inches between all.
The unit does well as a standalone unit if used with headphones or an external amp+speakers, but the MIDI functinality is a near-disaster. No instrument profiles I could find allowed the DD55 to function as normal as a MIDI controller on my computer. The only way I can use it as a controller is to simply record whatever MIDI data it puts out when played, and then edit the MIDI files in PC software after recording to put the signals into the right notes. It's disappointing because there really isn't anything else currently competing with the DD55 now, you can either spend a lot less and get only four pads, or spend a lot more for a stage-level instrument.
This review was originally published on http://www.musicgearreview.com